Chronic low-grade inflammation and oxidative stress play important roles in the development of obesity-induced cardiac hypertrophy. Here, we investigated the role of Fibronectin type III domain containing 5 (FNDC5) in cardiac inflammation and oxidative stress in obesity-induced cardiac hypertrophy.

Male wild-type and FNDC5^−/− mice were fed normal chow or high fat diet (HFD) for 20 weeks to induce obesity, and primary cardiomyocytes and H9c2 cells treated with palmitate (PA) were used as in vitro model. The therapeutic effects of lentiviral vector-mediated FNDC5 overexpression were also examined in HFD-induced cardiac hypertrophy.

High fat diet manifested significant increases in body weight and cardiac hypertrophy marker genes expression, while FNDC5 deficiency aggravated cardiac hypertrophy evidenced by increased Nppa, Nppb and Myh7 mRNA level and cardiomyocytes area, in association with enhanced cardiac inflammatory cytokines expression, oxidative stress level and JAK2/STAT3 activation in HFD-fed mice. FNDC5 deficiency in primary cardiomyocytes or FNDC5 knockdown in H9c2 cells enhanced PA-induced inflammatory responses and NOX4 expression. Exogenous FNDC5 pretreatment attenuated PA-induced cardiomyocytes hypertrophy, inflammatory cytokines up-regulation and oxidative stress in primary cardiomyocytes and H9c2 cells. FNDC5 overexpression attenuated cardiac hypertrophy as well as cardiac inflammation and oxidative stress in HFD-fed mice.

FNDC5 attenuates obesity-induced cardiac hypertrophy by inactivating JAK2/STAT3 associated-cardiac inflammation and oxidative stress. The cardio-protective role of FNDC5 shed light on future therapeutic interventions in obesity and related cardiovascular complications.